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ECHO - Red Cross partnership for Disaster Relief Emergency Fund renewed

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Whether major or silent, disasters have been measuredly increasing around the world for the last 30 years. With millions of lives affected, the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies have helped victims of small and large disasters, often in partnership with ECHO.

Today, the IFRC and ECHO have officially renewed one of its financial partnerships, the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF). This fund is designed to enable national societies to react to disasters such as extreme weather events, food insecurity or increased geological activity, and ensure that assistance reaches the victims as quickly as possible. It is used to help around 12 million people every year.

The IFRC, together with Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva and ECHO, recently launched their "Silent Disasters" campaign at the European Parliament. The DREF is one of the vital instruments to respond to these small and medium-scale disasters which are often unreported by the media and therefore "unheard of" by the general public.